We actually don’t know know if the narrator’s name in “The Yellow Wallpaper” is Jane. In fact, most reprints of the text include a footnote toward the end of the story when the name appears. The footnote informs readers that “Jane” might be Jenny, the husband’s sister who is also a character in the story. Experts claim that it could be a typo by an early publisher. That seems reasonable. But, there’s nothing at all interesting about that explanation.
Most readers—and teachers—prefer to think that “Jane” is indeed the name of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” This is based on some key evidence from the story. First, the narrator is unnamed throughout, which is not an uncommon choice for a story in first-person point of view, but a narrator with no name intrigues the reader. Thus, when we read the name “Jane” at the end, we logically conclude it’s the narrator herself.
To answer the question completely, we must establish some symbolic meaning first. John’s “rest cure”—which he prescribes to his wife as a treatment for her “mental condition—is a symbol of his power and dominance over her. She is mentally ill and suffering from a very serious illness that he does not take seriously. So, he convinces her that she is not sick, but simply in need of rest. His physician status also gives him more power and dominance over her. He is the expert, after all, and as she puts it, when one’s husband is also your doctor, “what is one to do?”
The rest cure is also a symbol of the narrator’s oppression and repression. She is bound by it, imprisoned by it, and repressed by it. She is made to stay for hours in a room with bars on the windows, a nailed-down bed, and that ugly, yellow paper. She also is not supposed to be writing. Her only purpose is to rest. Here’s the interesting part: she is not aware of this oppression and repression at all. She accepts her treatment, only questioning the treatment methods occasionally. Still, she spends most of the story cooperative and passive. That is, until the end, when she finally rebels against John (who is her husband and doctor), her treatment, Jenny, and—Jane.
As she states, “I’ve got out at last . . . in spite of you and Jane! And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” But who is Jane? Given the above, Jane is her oppressed, repressed, and passive self who cooperated with her husband’s rest cure and played a role in the oppression by accepting it. But not anymore! At the end, the narrator is no longer passive and cooperative. She is free! So, she is no longer Jane. Unfortunately, her freedom comes at a high price. It costs her her sanity.
The revelation of the narrator's name in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is very subtle. Her name does not appear until the very end of the story, but there is a gradual process by which the character breaks free enough to reveal her name, and the true tragedy of the tale is revealed. As the tale progresses, the narrator moves from believing that she sees a woman behind the wallpaper to embodying the imagined psyche of the woman behind the wallpaper. At first she loathes the wallpaper and wishes to keep the woman trapped behind it. As her condition worsens, she begins to want to "free" the woman, but she can never get enough time alone to do so. By the end of the story, she has managed to lock the door and throw the key out the window to buy herself some more time. When John, her husband, finally gets in the door and sees what she has become, he cries "What is the matter? [...] For God's' sake, what are you doing!" (656) to which the narrator replies "I've got out at last [...] in spite of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" (656). Here the narrator believes she is the manifestation of the imaginary woman behind the wallpaper, and thinks that John and his wife, Jane, have been trying to keep her behind it. In reality, John's callous treatment of Jane's condition has caused Jane to lose her mind. She now believes herself to be the now-free woman that once lurked behind the wallpaper.
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